The night that cost Julio Urías his baseball career in the United States has come to light. The Mexican pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers faces accusations of domestic violence for the events that occurred a year ago, on September 3, 2023, outside BMO Stadium after the soccer game between LAFC and Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami. The newspaper Los Angeles Times posted a video recorded by a witness showing Urías pulling, pushing and throwing a left-handed punch at his wife. The post comes as the 28-year-old pitcher waits for Major League Baseball to rule on his case.
The video lasts only 72 seconds and was recorded by a person whose identity is kept secret. Journalists from Los Angeles Times The video was obtained through a transparency request made to the California Highway Patrol, the state police force. The images became part of the investigation that began after a witness to the assault asked the agents to intervene. Urías was arrested and spent several hours in the Los Angeles County jail until he posted a $50,000 bond. After this, Urías did not pitch for the Dodgers again. In fact, he has not thrown a single ball in the current season, which is about to end. The Los Angeles team erased the face and surname of the Sinaloa native from all publicity. Since then, he remains a free agent, but his chances of pitching again in the major leagues are remote. Before the scandal broke, analysts estimated that Urías could aspire to a contract of around $200 million, but that possibility has vanished, for the moment.
Urías was suspended by the Dodgers on Sept. 6, 2023, when he was placed on administrative leave. In May of this year, the pitcher pleaded no contest to charges filed by city attorneys in local courts (the victim did not want to file a complaint). These were five counts of domestic violence, all of which were non-serious offenses. Urías was sentenced, on a single charge, to 36 months of unsupervised probation, one month of community service, and to attend a weekly course on gender-based violence for one year. Four other charges against him were dismissed.
California Highway Patrol agents investigated the events of that September night for three months. At the end of the investigation, they handed over their findings in December 2023 to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office. The district attorneys, however, decided not to file charges against the player. In their report, prosecutors described what can now be seen on the video: Urías was running to catch up with his wife Daisy “to pull her by the hair and shoulders.” The attorneys claimed that neither the injuries suffered by the victim nor the defendant’s criminal history justified the initiation of a felony case.
The pitcher was previously suspended without pay in 2019 after a similar domestic violence incident, in which he was also arrested. He avoided felony charges that time. No player has been suspended twice since the league, Major League Baseball, approved a code of conduct to prevent domestic violence and harassment.
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